"Keeweechic's Guangzhou" a Guangzhou Travel Page by keeweechic

Guangzhou - located north of Pearl River Delta and formerly known as Canton, Guangzhou is the capital of Guangdong Province and the southern gateway to China. Known as the 'City of Flowers' and with a nickname of The Goat City, it is one of the largest cities in South China. Guangzhou was founded around 214 B.C. as an encampment by the armies of the first Emperor of Qin Dynasty, Qin Shihuang. By the Tang Dynasty (618-907), the city was already an international port. The modernisation of Guangzhou began in the early 1920s when most of the main streets defining the city today were built then. It took only 18 months to build 40 kilometres (25 mi.) of road. During that modernisation period, the remainder of the old city wall was pulled down. Today, throughout the city, high-rise hotels, bridges, and new highways now just seem to appear overnight.

I visited the Guangdong Province on a short trip from Hong Kong. It was very rushed and quite a bit was crammed in a very short time but I am sure there is a lot more to see in the region. I went by hydrofoil to Shekou then by coach through Shenzen stopping in Dongguan. Later we went on to Guangzhou. At the end of the trip We travelled back to Hong Kong by Train.

In my travelogue I have put an early visit, and indeed my first visit to China, into Zhongshan which is part of the Guangdong Province on the lower tip of the Pearl River Delta. I was on a tour from Hong Kong to Macau and we crossed the Gongbei border into Zhongshan. The trip was not so memorable as I remember having a dreadful headache that day. Even lunch at one of the large hotels passed me by. Still I have a few photos that I managed to take.